Chris had left for work by the time I surfaced and after a leisurely breakfast, I meandered into the CBD via a footpath via beaches and jungles. It really is divine here and I'm so glad I chose Chris and this town for a day off. During the night I heard all manner of rustlings, squeaks and scrabbling sounds, but couldn't see anything out there. One bird here makes a squark that's identical to the beep of the pedestrian crossing and it makes you wonder whether it has tried to mate with lamp posts. Of all the beaches - Flynn's, Shelly, Rocky, Miners', Nobby's - you would expect the nudist community to be housed on the last; yet that was not where I was greeted to a close-up view of a man's bits dangling from beneath a T shirt (it was a little cool to go topless). Beautiful, bronzed bodies abounded, engaged in a variety of sports. In the town centre it was a different business, and I've never witnessed such a conglomeration of fat in a small area. Once they hit 25, it seems the locals are done for. When you can get ice cream for 30 cents in McDonald's, what hope have the fatties got?
Met up with Chris later on and he took me to the Koala Hospital. It's true! There really is such a place. Here in trees surrounded by greased barriers (so they can't escape) I saw a variety of the creatures in various states of fluffiness. One only had three legs and another was a hunchback. Their names derived from where they were found, such as Settlement Point Bea and Dunbogan Dave. Sadly I couldn't get close up and photographing them turned out to be pointless. The volunteers get to take babies home! When they reach a healthy weight they are returned to the same place they were found. One woman had phoned up to ask the hospital to take a koala away because it wa keeping her awake at night! Apparently they are fiercely territorial and make a noise like a pig. There was also this 'wild' male who visited the surrounding trees who they'd christened Romeo.
Chris took me on a tree tour in the hope we'd see koalas in the wild (we saw one). Of course they sleep (up to 20 hours a day!) during the daytime and look like little buddhas, curled up and precariously propped up in the v of two branches. Then it was back to his place for more delicious food and Chris's reminisences of his boarding school days, starting from seven up. Watched a bit of a kitsch eighties drama all about espionage, nazis and prostitutes, but haven't been able to find it on Google, so wonder if I dreamt it.
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